It's been a while since I posted in this blog (I picspam a lot on DW & LJ;). Here's some food from last week's K-day; an yearly office outing with a LOT of food in between workshops and management presentations.

The bus took an hour longer than planned because of a traffic jam.

When we were finally close to our destination, this mowing machine blocked the way, poor busdriver.
But eventually we arrived, after 2,5 hours! Great reading time;-)

Lunch part 1: raisin bun with cheese, chiabatta with egg and cheese, carrotcake.

Lunch part 2: vanilla yoghurt with crumble and forrestberries plus another piece of carrotcake:)

Dinner appetizer: wrap with smoked chicken

Dinner main 1: braised beef with mashed potato and herbal crumble

Dinner main 2: beefburger (fresh from the bbq, so good)

Dinner encore: another portion of braised beef (didn't eat the asparagus)

Dinner main 3: vegetarian lasagna and garlic bread

Dessert 1: vanilla icecream with white chocolate and fresh strawberries

Dessert 2: Dessert 1: vanilla icecream with crumble and baked pineapple

Dessert encore: vanilla icecream with white chocolate, crumble and fresh strawberries

The end. (Bus back home took less than 1,5 hours, wahey empty freeway!)

Foodpost! Tried falafel for the first time last month and was not too impressed by the taste. Today I got the left over falafel balls from my freezer and I wanted to make them more interesting. So I combined them with string beans, fried some onions and garlic and presented them with home baked pancakes and ketchup...



Looks really nice, but the falafel balls were still a let down, very bland. Meh.

Last Sunday my mom's partner J. celebrated his 75th birthday with a fancy buffet brunch. Here's the food I gobbled up:


A slice of brown bread with fried egg (fried while you wait!) + a croquette + carpaccio (thinly sliced raw beef with parmezan cheese bits) + a small sesamy bagel with creamcheese and salmon + orange juice and milk:)


A small bowl of honey melon and Galia melon with ham + a breadroll with Brie. Oh and a couple of fries, that I had already eaten before I remembered to take a photo:)


A bit of icecreamcake, a slice of carrotcake, a profiterole (cream puff) with speculaas cream, two petit fours, two macarons, a thin slice of spekkoek (Indonesian layercake) and a tiny glass of pineapple mousse with advocaat (a Dutch eggnog with brandy; I only had a couple of spoons of the mousse, then handed the left over bit with the eggnog to my mom;)


One last petit four and a marshmallow dipped in the chocolate fountain:) The end.

Twice a year I move the vertical blinds on my balcony door from the front to the back room because I switch it up with a cover on the door that keeps out the draft in winter in the front and blocks the sun in summer in the back. Last winter one of the stems that holds the louver (vertical slat) broke off in the frontroom, so when I wanted to move the blinds back for summer, I had to repair it before I could hang them back up. Here is a photoblog of how I did this.


I didn't have time to fix it right away, so I had a hole in between the blinds for the past week (I put a scarf on the door to cover it, so the neighbours in the flat across the street couldn't peek through;). In the photo on the right you can see the broken stem.


Carefully took the system apart (and took photos of the process, so I could see how it was supposed to be put back together...)


Fortunately this rail has 11 carrier bodies while I only have 10 slats, so all I have to do is I take the broken one out. To do this I still need to take the whole thing apart. It took me a while to figure out how to disconnect these plastic distance keeper strips*.


I managed to do it, but then after taking the carrier body with the broken stem out from between the rest, I fiddled a lot to connect the distance keeper again and in my struggle I broke one:(


Seeing as there is no tension on them, I figured I could repair it with tape and sure enough: that worked! Then I carefully fiddled some more to connect all the carrier bodies in one row:)


Now to put it all together again... (using the photos I took as a guide in reverse:)


Tadaah!

Shout out to this instruction video by Peter Heine who showed me that the rails could be taken apart and what parts I should be careful with (*his distance keeper strips were metal, so he didn't have to worry about breaking them;)

Yesterday was the first day of my Summervacation and it was off to a great start with a visit to the Efteling Fairytalepark with my mom, sister in law G. and darlingnephew R. Here are some photos of our adventures:)


First up: The Piraña river rapids ride: the water is still calm here, but WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!


Wild water, wooohoo!


The Efteling's garbage cans are hungry!


Wooden rollercoaster Joris and the Dragon.


Hehehe, my companions were too busy screaming on the ride to notice the dragon, good thing we had already gotten a good look while waiting in line:-D


Dare devil R. is ready for his first upside down rollercoaster The Python!


Two loopings and a corkscrew, oh yes, what a ride!


All four us are excited to go on the Dark ride Vogelrok:)


Another hungry garbage can, the most famous one: Holle Bolle Gijs. He keeps asking for trash to gobble up and politely says thank you when you feed him!


On our way to the exit we have just enough time for a quick visit to Pinocchio in the Fairytale forest. Can you see him?


What an excellent day.

Went on a daytrip to The Hague last weekend, to have a festive lunch with my sister in law G. and darling nephew R. at the Haagsche Snoephuys (Candyhouse:) I traveled back by train with my brother and R., who wanted to draw his own version of the Impala colouringpage I coloured for the Land of Art:)

Ugh, yet again I have an infection in my eyelids; ever since that horrid ear infection this Summer, my right eye is being a pain every couple of weeks. Visited the docter this morning, got prescribed a antibiotic cream and received instructions for an eyewash with baby shampoo. Have already tried the latter; touching your inner eyelids with a q-tip (cotton bud) is ITCHY. I'm supposed to do that for a couple of weeks to hopefully stop this thing from returning. The cream is to calm down the inflammation, I have to apply it IN MY EYE twice a day for seven days...

So who wants to see my snotty eye? Below a photo from Sunday evening and another one taken after the visit to the docter. She had put some yellow stuff in my eye to check the cornea (all clear) - that felt and looked like she squirted iodine in my eye, OUCH!

Saturday, September 16 was the last day of the Potato-Festival in Emmeloord; traditionally rounded up with the Fish-Potato RUN, a running event from Fishing village Urk to Potato town Emmeloord. Brotherdearest and his friend participate in the 12,88 K run and I went to my old home town to cheer them on for the final few meters:)


The Fish-Potato RUN is organized by AVNOP, my old athletics club (when I was a teenager, a long, loooooong time ago;)


On the final day of the Potato Festival there are free fries for everyone, yay!


Ahw, the Poldertoren (poldertower), a landmark that still makes me nostalgic:)